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Polystyrene Microplastics of Varying Sizes and Shapes Induce Distinct Redox and Mitochondrial Stress Responses in a Caco-2 Monolayer

Antioxidants 2023 47 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 60 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Nelly D. Saenen, Nelly D. Saenen, Nelly D. Saenen, Nelly D. Saenen, Frank Van Belleghem, M. Witters, Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Inés Tejeda, Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Nelly D. Saenen, Frank Van Belleghem, Inneke Hantoro Inneke Hantoro Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Karen Smeets, Inés Tejeda, Karen Smeets, Inés Tejeda, Frank Van Belleghem, Anitha Ethirajan, Anitha Ethirajan, Frank Van Belleghem, Frank Van Belleghem, Karen Smeets, Karen Smeets, Inneke Hantoro Nelly D. Saenen, Inneke Hantoro Nelly D. Saenen, Nelly D. Saenen, Inneke Hantoro

Summary

Researchers tested three sizes and shapes of polystyrene microplastics on human intestinal cells and found that all were taken up by the cells, with the smallest particles (200 nm) causing the most pronounced effects on cellular stress responses. The microplastics triggered changes in antioxidant gene expression and mitochondrial activity. The study suggests that the number of particles a cell absorbs, driven largely by particle size, determines the severity of the stress response.

Polymers

Currently, we lack crucial knowledge on how the physicochemical properties of particles affect cellular health, resulting in an important gap in our understanding of the human toxicity of microplastics (MPs). Our aim was to evaluate the impact of the size and the shape of MPs on uptake and the intracellular effects in a human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cell line. Spherical (200 nm and 2 µm) and fibre-/fragment-shaped (8.9 ± 10.1 µm by 1.14 ± 0.97 µm) polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) were used to study their uptake and the potential to induce redox and mitochondrial stress responses after 24 h of exposure. We demonstrated the cellular uptake of both spherical and fibre-/fragment-shaped MPs in a size-dependent manner. In response to 2 µm spheres, we observed differential expressions of redox-related genes, including HMOX1, CAT, and GPX1. All PS-MPs decreased the intracellular H2O2 levels, which can be attributed to mitochondrial stress responses, such as increased mitochondrial DNA content, footprint, and morphology. Altogether, we demonstrated uptakes and changes in redox and mitochondrial parameters for all PS-MPs, with the 200 nm spheres showing the most profound effects. This suggests that the induction of defensive responses in Caco-2 cells mainly correlates with the number of particles taken up.

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